Lead Ad Creative

If you run a Facebook page for your business, you’ve probably heard about the recent changes the site is making to the Newsfeed. They’ve framed it as a shift to focus on updates from friends and family, a return to the first years of Facebook. But what does that mean for brand pages, particularly those running Facebook Lead Ads? Some say a lot; others, very little. It all comes down to how you’ve been using Facebook for your business all along, including Facebook Lead Ads.

It can take a few days to get up and running, but once those Facebook Lead Ads are at full steam, you should be seeing strong clicks to your Facebook lead form and lead completion rates. Hooray! You’re running a successful leads without landing pages campaign. But then, something happens. Slowly, your completion rate dips and over time you notice a distinct downward trend. This doesn’t mean your Facebook Lead Ad campaign is doomed. It just means it’s time to refresh all or part of the campaign.

Whether you’re gathering leads without landing pages or running a more traditional lead generation campaign, there’s some legwork to be done before you launch your actual lead generation ads. It can be tempting just to jump right in, especially when you can run a campaign to generate lead without setting up landing pages. Yes, fully integrated lead ad units save a lot of time and resources, but you’ll want to thoughtfully plan out your campaign for maximum efficiency and optimum cost per lead. Here are a few steps to take:

Facebook offers a wealth of creative and targeting options to help your brand reach the right people. But sometimes, all those options can feel overwhelming. And if you have a limited budget or are anxious to see results, you might not want to wait to test and re-test your own creative over and over again. That’s where Facebook Case Studies can come in to help guide your Facebook Lead Ad strategy before you get started.

These high-performing Facebook Lead Ad examples can take some of the guesswork out of your first Facebook Lead Ad campaign, but they’re no substitute for real data about your target audience and converted customers. Think of these examples as “cheat sheets” to get you up and running and gaining Facebook Leads quickly. As your campaigns generate more and more leads, take the time to run your own tests and finetune your Facebook Lead Ad creative and targeting. But first, let’s look at one example of a “slamdunk” in Facebook Lead Ad success.

A Facebook Lead Ad can be a pretty powerful lead generation tool, when run effectively. But there are a lot of moving pieces in each Facebook Lead Ad Campaign. How can you be sure you’re optimizing for the highest quality leads and lowest cost per lead? The key is to break it down piece by piece and optimize step by step, continually testing along the way. To start, let’s tackle the Facebook Lead Ad itself: the creative.

Facebook Lead Ad Headline

As with any type of advertising, your Facebook Lead Ad headline needs to entice users to click. Highlight the key selling proposition of your company, or the main benefit of your lead generation offer. The Facebook Lead Ad headline is the largest text they’ll see but space is limited, particularly on mobile devices. Keep it to 40 characters or less. Think short, sweet and to-the-point. It’s OK to be direct and somewhat salesy here; your supporting copy and Context Card can tell more of the story, but your headline is what will convince users to read on and continue clicking. Your headline is one of the easiest items to test and highly correlated to clicks, so be sure to test multiple headline variations of your Facebook Lead Ad.

Visual Media

Your headline and visual will do most of the heavy lifting in your Facebook Lead Ad; if a user isn’t interested in those they will quickly move on. A video will naturally attract more eyeballs in the crowded Newsfeed, so if you’ve got one, use it. Video not in the budget? You can create a moving slideshow right within Facebook to still include motion in your Facebook Lead Ad. In some cases a carousel of static images may be preferred; just make sure there’s no text in the image and that you elect to have Facebook show the top-performing graphic first. The visual creative is not quite as easy to swap in and out as a headline, but it is the most powerful part of your ad, so experiment with a variety of ad formats, media types and visual look and feels to find the one that works for your business.

Post Text

Once your catchy headline and compelling visuals have drawn in users, your Facebook Lead Ad copy comes into play. If they’ve read this far, you can do a little more storytelling here or expand on the key features of your offer, product or service. But keep it short! Think of this as the caption for a Facebook post. Aim for a maximum of 130 characters; 90 is even better as it presents best for mobile viewing. (And Facebook Lead Ads are extremely powerful on mobile, where users are less likely to browse away from Facebook.) This is the most complex part of the ad to test, so you may want to save it for after you’ve optimized all your other Facebook Lead Ad components.

Call-To-Action Button

The final piece of your Facebook Lead Ad is the CTA button. Facebook has pre-selected a set of Call-To-Action buttons for use with a Facebook Lead Ad: Apply Now; Get Quote; Download; Learn More; Sign Up; and Subscribe. Your business may more closely lend itself to one over others, but test different CTAs to see what works. Again, these are very easy to swap but can have a large impact without a lot of overhead.

While you’re testing, keep in mind that there is no one right answer for any piece of your ad. Each one interacts with the next, and the right combination for once audience may be very different than another target. Got your Facebook Lead Ad in a good spot? Then it’s time to improve your Context Card and Lead Form.

Facebook Lead Advertising is an effective and efficient way to grow your email database and gather potential customer information, also called sales leads. Thanks to Facebook’s wealth of user data, their targeting capabilities are second to none. And their Lead Ad placement doesn’t require a user to click out of Facebook. They are able to submit all their information without having to leave the site and interrupt their browsing experience. This makes them more likely to quickly hit submit on the Lead Form and pass their personal information on to you. Facebook even pre-fills the form with the user’s verified information! Best of all, there is no need for you to set up multiple landing pages on your website. Everything is handled right on Facebook.

Now that we’ve defined Facebook Lead Advertising itself, there are a few other key terms you should know before you start running your first Facebook Lead Campaign.

The true power of a Facebook Lead Ad is in the lead form, but before you get to that point it looks remarkably similar to any other Facebook ad or sponsored post. There are a few subtle differences, but nothing that the typical user would really notice as specific to a Facebook Lead Ad over any other type. So how do you stand out and get them to click? First, you have to select the right visual media for your initial ad post. There are four main types to choose from; we’ll look at the unique features and pros and cons of each one.

Now that you’ve started running your first Facebook Lead Ads, it’s time to gauge performance, analyze results and optimize your Facebook Lead Ads. By fine-tuning the various feature of your ad, you can find the best set of attributes for lower cost per lead and higher lead quality.

If you’ve run a few Facebook campaigns but haven’t tried Facebook Lead Ads yet, now is a great time to start. Facebook Lead Ads are a powerful way to connect with customers right on Facebook, without interrupting their browsing experience or making your team build yet another landing page. But they are also a little more challenging to set up. We’ve created this introduction to Facebook Lead Ads to guide you through what you need to know, and how to setup your first Facebook Lead Ad campaign.